The
book entitled “The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety” was written by the
Chinese scholar Guo Jujing during the Yuan
Dynasty.His pen-name was Yizi, and he is known in Japan as Kaku Kyokei.The book recounts the self-sacrificing
behavior of twenty-four sons and daughters who go to extreme lengths to honor
their parents, stepparents, grandparents, and in-laws.The word e-kyôdai is usually translated as “brother pictures”, and
in ukiyo-e it usually indicates two
apparently unrelated pictures having a common element.In this series, full-length pictures of
beautiful women are paired with one of the twenty-four paragons of filial
piety.This series of prints is listed
as number 122 in Kuniyoshi by Basil
William Robinson (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1961).The prints are each about 14 by 10 inches (36
by 25 centimeters), a size known as ôban,
and the total number of prints in the series is unknown.

Inset: Taishun (T’a Shun in Chinese)
is being helped by elephants and birds cultivate his parents’ fields.

Main picture:
Beauty freeing birds from a cage in front of a picture of an elephant

Inset: Ôshô (王祥,
Wang Hsiang in Chinese) went to a frozen pond and lay naked on the ice until
it melted in order to catch fish for his stepmother